Customer Reviews

Toshiba Satellite 5005-S507 Laptop (1.1-GHz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I don't want to scare anyone out of purchasing this beautiful notebook, but before purchasing you should be aware that there is a problem with the 504 model and the 507 is the exact same model with new HD and GC. The problem is that the 504 randomly shuts down. Believed to be due to overheating of the desktop CPU. If you check the Toshiba user forum you will see that this problem is very wide spread and Toshiba is (believe it or not) not admitting to this problem....

This is a fantastic notebook and the only problem is that they decided to use this old pIII desktop processor that everyone is well aware gets very hot, well, everyone except those at Toshiba support. Now, your only question is: do you want to buy a notebook that has a known issue that is not resolved? I repeat check the forum and do not just take my word for it.

I decided to let you all in on the secret because I know from experience that I do not always purchase at Amazon, but I do always check there reviews 'cause I know Amazon customers care and stick together and Amazon will let you tell the truth.

This is a great piece of machinery, if you can get it to run for more than 20-20 minutes before it overheats and shuts down. When used on my desk, would last about an hour without overheating, but the battery is almost dead by then anyway. Good idea, not enough research before production. Video and Audio are THE BEST for a laptop though. Even Toshiba admits that there is a problem now (they wouldn't before). Mine was a newer model, purchased about a month ago.... Better Processor, and included an external USB 1.44 floppy too. If you can stand buying a fan to blow on it all the time, good machine, but I give it 1 STAR because a laptop/notebook should be able to be used as one, not have to be on a desk with extra fans. Oh, and Toshiba reps are AWFULL when they're at fault, but great when just need a little help.

I love Toshiba laptops in general, and the features on this model lured me in, especially the huge hard drive, large RAM and great graphics card. However.....this is a *VERY* strange oversight on their part....they have placed in it a chip that requires serious cooling (the kind laptops never offer) after as little as 20 minutes of crunching. Without the cooling, the chip reaches its max temp quickly and then unceremoniously shuts down until it cools sufficiently, resulting in an annoying loss of data. Toshiba is not exactly forthright about the whole matter, but I have a trade in the works with them for a Toshiba that uses the *mobile* (MIII) chip that will solve the problem.
As far as I can see, there is no fix on the horizon, and so this model is soon destined for the dustbin.

Toshiba had a good idea with this notebook, but they have some poor design flaws that really hold it back. First off it has a terrible overheating problem that one user mentioned before, I am in the process of getting a refund. It wont affect you till after about 3 weeks, then it will all break loose. This notebook as a Pentium III, DESKTOP CPU, no no NOT a MOBILE, a DESKTOP, so of course, it heats up and causes problems. It also eats battery like there is no tomorrow. At first I was amazed, but after time, it began to have more and more problems. Check out the toshiba support forum before you buy it. I am going to get the 5105-s607 to replace it. No one has reported problems with it yet.. Good Luck

The Satellite 5005-S507 reaches new heights in mobile computing with enhanced graphics performance, made possible by the NVIDIA GeForce4. Superior DVD playback, increased frame rates and breakthrough 3D graphics must be seen to be believed.

Dolby Digital Optical out, DVD/CDRW, and even a subwoofer is included in this cutting edge machine.

Better yet, they purposely left out 802.11b and Bluetooth because both will soon be replaced by 802.11a (wake up Dell).

If you can live without a floppy drive and serial/parallel ports, and you can live with the UXGA font size, this is the perfect laptop.

I own the -s504 and it has worked great. My only complaint was the graphics card could have been a bit better. The -s507 has come through with the blazing Nvidia GeForce 32DDR card. This is in my opinion the best mobile card on the market. They also threw in an extra 10 gig for the hard drive. This is an amazing laptop for the graphics design student and you can't knock the value.

Whatever you do... do not purchase this machine. You are spending [money] on a doorstop that gets less work done than paper and pencil. I have to say that this is absolutely the worst purchase I have ever made. The computer has a desktop processor which overheats and thus causes it to shut down unexpectedly. Even better is the fact that Toshiba released a patch which throttles the cpu to lower than 50%. So basically you are paying for a laptop that runs at 500 mhz and shuts down on you periodically. Toshiba will not refund your money and will only tell you to send it into their service depot for which they do not have a fix.

At first let me tell: I don't buy from Amazon.com.
3 months ago I bought one this. Trust me, this notebook is the most beautiful I have see. In the firts 2 weeks I play Medal Of Honor at maximun settings without problems, the sound is a master as the display. Everething was great and then...
The graphics start to become slooow. The 3Dmark drop from 3700(new) to 1800(hot). I contact Toshiba and they tell me to upgrade to the new Bios over the Toshiba site. I did it, but the graphics still slooow. Slower than 3005 S307. And a big surprise:
The new Bios down the CPU speed about 25% when CPU become HOT.
I bought this notebook as a Pentium 1.1mhz not as 800mhz, but this is the speed that you can reach when you most need, because Toshiba put a desktop CPU. The 3005 S304/S307 have mobile CPU.
If you want a serios notebook don't buy 5005 S507 or any other notebook with desktop CPU.
I am changing to 5105 S607(mobile CPU)
At final analysis this is a good notebook but if you want a notebook to play, this is not the best.

Toshiba announce on 2/28 that they will be releasing a new bios that fixes the overheating problem on 3/4/2002 on their website. They say the overheating problem was reported by less than 1% of users. For more information about the problem and the fix, search for the 2/28 article on the PC World site.

3 months ago I bought one this. Trust me, this notebook is the most beautiful I have see. In the firts 2 weeks I play Medal Of Honor at maximun settings without problems, the sound is a master as the display. Everething was great and then...
The graphics start to become slooow. The 3Dmark drop from 3700(new) to 1800(hot). I contact Toshiba and they tell me to upgrade to the new Bios over the Toshiba site. I did it, but the graphics still slooow. Slower than 3005 S307. And a big surprise:
The new Bios down the CPU speed about 25% when CPU become HOT.
I bought this notebook as a Pentium 1.1mhz not as 800mhz, but this is the speed that you can reach when you most need, because Toshiba put a desktop CPU. The 3005 S304/S307 have mobile CPU.
If you want a serios notebook don't buy 5005 S507 or any other notebook with desktop CPU...
At final analysis this is a good notebook but if you want a notebook to play, this is not the best.